I wish I had time to contribute, but I already paid the money for an SDS CPI-2 and it does everything I want, also day job is crazy!
I do want to pass on some thoughts to the project though, but since I have no dog in the hunt, they may be off base.
1. I wouldn't screw with the mega squirt stuff. From what I understand there is a company behind it and not true open source.
2. The speeduino stuff seems to have a much better license.
3. The speedunino runs on a standard mega 2650 so you can buy a more industrial version that probably doesn't have cheap clone chips and will survive heat and cold here:
https://www.rugged-circuits.com/microcontroller-boards/rugged-mega-et it also has input protection, a much more sane power system, and you can use hall or VR.
4. The speeduino shield schematic is here:
https://github.com/speeduino/Hardware/blob/main/v0.4/SMD/Latest/v0.4.4d.pdf If you designed your own, you could just install the two IXDN602 ignition drivers and related passives shown on page two, as well as the MAX9926 chip if you want to use VR instead of hall effect.
5. Putting the pickup in the mag hole is undesirable for two reasons.
5.1 It doesn't work on 6cyl engines unless you have a gear setup.
5.2 It takes a fairly straight forward electrical solution and converts it into an electrical and mechanical solution. Some may argue that the mechanical is easy, the electrical is hard, and to those people I'd say, not when you are dealing with vibration and heat... also see emagair.
6. If you design a daughterboard/hat that plugged right into the mega 2560, then you could also design in a charge controller using one of the zillion charger ICs, then build yourself a housing that also has a 3s2p (6 cell) 18650 battery holder and charge it to 80% and never more. That will last forever if you use quality cells and would probably power a 6cyl for more than 2 hours. Cells weigh 9oz. If you want to be really redneck (and also brilliant) make the housing such that you can click on a Dewalt or Milwaukee M18 or 20v battery, then use a dc-dc converter chip to get the right voltage. It's easy to know the battery is good when you used it to screw your deck together the previous weekend
At the end of the day you would have a completely self contained/powered box that plugs into a coil and pickup. Would that compel the emag crowd? I doubt it, because for some reason having well maintained battery backup is less than a generator (and all of the related mechanical complexity) in their eyes. Also, the install is more than put device in mag hole.
In other words, building inexpensive EI is fun and cool, but everybody else will keep buying emags (and some SDS).